Friday, March 11, 2011

WWE has a banner on their homepage asking for fans help by taking a new survey. The survey asks fans their feedback on retail giants Kmart, Walmart, JC Penney, Kohls and Target. The survey continues with WWE asking people their thoughts on different Kmart promotions and their chances of buying products from Kmart. They close it with asking feedback on the various WWE.com sections.

As noted before, The Rock will be returning to RAW the night after WrestleMania 27 in Atlanta, Georgia. Here is WWE’s official release:

“Just 24 hours after WrestleMania XXVII Host Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson takes the reins of The Show of Shows, “the most electrifying man in entertainment” will be appearing on Monday Night Raw, live in Atlanta. Tune in to Raw at 9/8 CT on Monday, April 4 – the night after WrestleMania – to find out what The People’s Champ is cookin’.”

Matches for tonight’s WWE SmackDown on SyFy include Kane vs. Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes vs. JTG, Layla vs. Kaitlyn, Rey Mysterio vs. Drew McIntyre and a main event of Edge and Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio and Brodus Clay. There will also be appearances by John Cena, Triple H and The Undertaker.

Shelton Benjamin worked a dark match prior to this week’s SmackDown taping in Houston, Texas, beating SmackDown Superstar Curt Hawkins. The feeling is that based on how well he performed and the solid reaction he received from the hometown crowd, he will receive an offer to return to the organization after WrestleMania.

JBL commented on his RAW return this week with the following message on Twitter: “Was it a one night return or a comeback? Or you kidding…I live on an island that has the best golf course in the world, I am retired.”

As of the end of February WWE is currently the #5 ranked retailer on Facebook, behind Victoria’s Secret, Victoria’s Secret Pink, Adidas and Lacoste. The only other sports franchise in the top 25 is the NFL but WWE is almost doubling them in number of fans.

There has been a lot of talk about Jim Ross being brought back to announce WrestleMania but he was expected to call last year’s show and didn’t. There has been no word yet on the announce team for this year’s show but we do know Booker T will be one.

The storyline that Michael Cole is having his first match at WrestleMania 27 isn’t correct as Cole actually teamed with Jerry Lawler on the July 28th, 2008 RAW against Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase in a tag team title match.

According to Ticketmaster, all tickets for WrestleMania 27 in Atlanta, Georgia are officially sold out. There will be additional tickets released in the final days before the show once production is complete and more seats are available. There are still a few tickets left for the Hall of Fame ceremony.

Rey Mysterio accepted Cody Rhodes’ challenge for WrestleMania 27 at Tuesday night’s SmackDown tapings so their match is now on. Cody has vowed to remove Rey’s mask at WrestleMania but as of now, no kind of stipulation has been added. The updated confirmed WrestleMania card is below.

There is still talk of adding The Corre vs. Kane, Big Show and Kevin Nash or another option is The Corre vs. Big Show, Kane and a few other SmackDown babyfaces. Other matches expected to be added include Trish Stratus, Kelly Kelly & John Morrison vs. Layla, Michelle McCool & Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan for the United States Title and an un-determined Divas match.

Seven participants had been confirmed for the upcoming season of WWE Tough Enough. According to Tampa Bay Online, there are two more names we can add to the list. They are:

* Andy Levine: 23-year-old former lineman for Florida International University and priority agent with the Miami Dolphins. Has wrestled on the independent scene.

* Mickael Zaki: 26-year-old from New Jersey (now living in Tampa) with a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a degree in criminal justice. He has spent the past two years competing on the independent wrestling circuit.

John Cena has passed the 5 million fans mark on Facebook, which is a pretty big number compared to other athletes and wrestlers. Cena recently passed names like American Idol, UFC, The Rolling Stones, Subway and Oprah. Cena still has a way to go from the top with the top celebrity, Eminem, having almost 30 million Facebook fans.

It’s interesting to note that NXT: Redemption Rookie Darren Young was actually on the RAW roster until this week when the new show debuted. Young has had several matches on WWE Superstars over the past few months but is now competing for a chance to be on NXT season 6 to earn a shot on the main WWE roster.

WWE is pushing the fact that WWE Champion and former MTV reality star The Miz will be meeting current MTV reality star Snooki on next week’s show when she’s there to guest host. Considering the recent Twitter interactions between Snooki and Miz’s WrestleMania opponent John Cena, an angle with the three seems very likely.

RAW superstar John Morrison and WWE diva Melina had a little too much fun celebrating Melina’s birthday on Wednesday night in Los Angeles – and got “banned for life” from a popular nightclub in the process. Morrison wrote on Twitter @TheRealMorrison:

“… Security doesn’t like confrontation… @realmelina and I are banned for life from Skybar… And… I DON’T CARE”

“Skybar! Why would you have a pool if you didn’t want us to jump in? It’s Melina’s birthday! … C’maaaaan!!!”

“Haha! They called the cops but we took the got the Brain Surge limo outta there!”

As noted before, the March 7th RAW scored a 3.92 cable rating with 5.78 million viewers. This was the highest rated RAW since August 24th, 2009 when Floyd Mayweather hosted.

In a segment by segment breakdown, The Undertaker’s interview opened the show with a 3.91 rating and the brawl with Nexus and Randy Orton plus Orton vs. David Otunga gained 71,000 viewers, which is good. Christian vs. Brodus Clay and Sunny’s Hall of Fame announcement gained 219,000 more viewers. The increase in viewers is likely attributed to the Sunny video as this part in the show did a 5.2 rating among teenage boys, which beat everything else on the show except Steve Austin’s return.

Following the “Original Diva” keeping viewers tuned in, the Divas Title match between Eve Torres and Nikki Bella lost 610,000 viewers. This match had a 4.2 rating among teenage boys and as noted, the Sunny segment did a 5.2.

The segment with Steve Austin, JBL and Michael Cole gained 961,000 viewers to a 4.46 rating. This is the best RAW quarter-hour rating in a long time. In Males 12-17, the rating was up from a 4.2 to a 5.5. The match with Daniel Bryan and Sheamus lost 1,102,000 viewers, which is the largest numbers of viewers lost during a segment of any WWE or TNA show in many years. This shows that many viewers tuned in to see Steve Austin and once he was done, they tuned out and returned at 11pm to see if anything else big was going to happen with the show in general.

The CM Punk vs. R-Truth match, the Shawn Michaels video and the segment with Vickie Guerrero lost 119,000 viewers while the Dolph Ziggler vs. John Morrison match lost 43,000 more. The end of RAW with John Cena’s “final knockout” on The Rock and the attack from The Miz did good numbers, gaining 965,000 viewers and finishing with a 4.25 overrun.

WWE’s website interviewed JBL this week after his return on RAW Monday night. Here are some highlights from the in-character interview:

WWE.com: First of all, sorry about the night you had this past Monday. I don’t think it was the return you were expecting.

JBL: What bothers me is when other great champions come back, like The Rock, “Stone Cold” or Roddy Piper, when these guys return they’re not treated like that. And I was the greatest champion of all time. You got the best [Superstars] from the ’80s and ’90s coming back for WrestleMania, and I had to reiterate to my fans, because they love me so much, that JBL was the greatest champion. So, when something like this happens it’s just a matter of complete disrespect by a guy like Steve Austin. I hear he’s very successful in movies – God bless him – but that’s where he should stay.

WWE.com: Speaking of being successful after WWE, you’ve been gone for almost two years now, what are you up to these days?

JBL: I invested in a really good beverage company, New Leaf Beverage (newleafbrands.com). We’ve got about 18 brands, including four lemonades and four iced teas. We’re in about 35 states, and sales have been pretty good. It’s been a good investment; I’ve spent a lot of time with that. I spend a lot of time in Bermuda. I can do my investments anywhere, so I spend about 4-6 months a year there. It’s only an hour-and-a-half from New York, so it’s an easy commute.

WWE.com: Any final words for the WWE Universe?

JBL: I’m thrilled they got to see the greatest champion to ever come back. Also, I got to meet Alberto Del Rio, and I cannot tell you how proud I am of the young man. I knew his dad. I knew his uncle. And one thing we agree on, Rey Mysterio is not a good role model for kids. You want to look up to people like Alberto Del Rio and me, both great champions, both very successful financially.